Special Security Bureau to guard Chhattisgarh camps

Raipur, April 10 (IANS) The Special Security Bureau (SSB) personnel have begun taking over from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) the security of 23 government-run relief camps for villagers in the areas affected by Maoist violence in Chhattisgarh. About 48,000 people, mostly poor tribals, are housed in the camps because of threats from Maoists.

A SSB battalion, which reached capital Raipur Tuesday, is now on way to the southern insurgency-hit region of Bastar to join another SSB battalion that has been in the Maoist guerrillas’ hotbed since late last month.

Officials say at present 36,991 people from 201 villages in Dantewada district and 10,949 people from 275 villages in neighbouring Bijapur district are living in the relief camps.

The mass exodus of villagers from these two districts began after they launched a controversial government-backed civil militia movement, Salwa Judum, in June 2005 to take on the Maoist insurgents.

Sources at the police headquarters say the CRPF troopers to be moved from relief camps’ security will be shifted to deep interiors of Bastar’s 40,000 sq km forested area, where rebels are traditionally strong.

The CRPF troopers will team up with the Special Task Force, the Chhattisgarh Armed Forces and the local youths recruited as special police officers (SPOs) to combat decade-old Maoist terror network, and tackle dozens of training camps around which the Maoists have laid landmines.

The banned Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) carried out several deadly attacks on relief camps in both Dantewada and Bijpaur districts in the past two years and the government was forced to deploy the CRPF to protect the terrified villagers.